1001 Rosehill Avenue

The Tinnin-Davis House, ca. 1921.

Ernest Tinnin was a mill hand at Erwin Cotton Mill and worked in the weave room at Mill No. 4 after it opened in 1925. When the house was built, it had wood siding and the front door faced C Street (now called Knox St). Ten years later, they sold the property to the Davises and moved to 911 Carolina, presumably to save money and pay off their mortgage during the Great Depression.

Clarence V. “Bud” and Thelma Davis built a porch, moved the front door to Rosehill, and clad the exterior in clinker brick. The house first shows up as 1001 Rosehill in the 1935 City Directory. Bud was the postal clerk at the West Durham Post Office, and at this time West Durham was still separate from the city of Durham.